Déjà Vu
by xartxisxaxbangx
Summary: Déjà vu – something you think happened, but never really did. When Naruto left, she thought she'd died. But now, Hinata realizes that maybe all along she was just waiting for Deidara, so that when she really died, she'd be with him. DeiHina, T for Hidan.
1. Over

**A/N: Hey guys! Finally, my first multi-chapter fic! I would have posted it earlier, but I was afraid that it needed editing and stuff, so I kept procrastinating. Also, thinking of a good title for this fic was a bitch. **

**Déjà vu is ****the illusion of having previously experienced something actually being encountered for the first time. I know it's not terribly obvious, but I hope it becomes clear later on. If it doesn't, tell me and I will change the title, because titles are important. **

**Oh, and don't be annoyed if the story doesn't really get going till really late. There's stuff I need to clarify in her past to explain why she becomes like that. And can you believe I spent two weeks wondering if Deidara should end with 'un' or 'yeah'? **

**Anyhoo, I don't own anything, because if I did, DeiHina would not be crack. It would be canon. **

Chapter One - Over

He had gone. He had really gone.

Hinata was happy for him, of course. He'd get to learn so much and she would be so proud of his achievements – but fact was, he left. He left her in this cold village where no one actually cared if she vanished off the face of the earth, least of all her relatives. Naruto had always been her inspiration and without him, to be honest, she really didn't have anything to work towards.

While she liked to tell herself that she had improved so much because she loved her family and wanted to make them proud of her, the truth was that she had done it for Naruto. To make him notice her, admire her and maybe, just maybe, like her.

She had lived and breathed Naruto.

With him gone… life seemed bleak. No more bundle of yellow energy yelling at her "Hey Hinata-chan!"; no more eye-blinding orange costumes to flash past her; no more determined expressions which spurred her on to make one of her own. It wasn't like she had much more to live for.

Okay, it sounded like a major overstatement.

It wasn't. Seriously.

Her father detested her, the main family loathed her, her sister both, and her cousin simply _hated _her. No friends to speak of, besides her team members – and they were busy with their own lives at any rate.

Ironically, the branch family idolized her. But in a short while, they too would realize what a pathetic failure she was. Like how all her other 'friends' had.

Case in point: Sakura-chan was a beautifully vivid-coloured, successful kunoichi, with her hair like candy floss and her eyes an indefinable blue-green. Most of all, she had Naruto's admiration and affection. Ino-chan was even more beautiful, with the flaxen hair and limpid blue eyes poets spoke of dreamily, but so rarely seen in real life. Tenten-chan too, with her warm marmalade eyes and cinnamon hair. Heck, even Temari-chan was better looking than her.

Being around friends like hers was giving her a complex. She knew she looked blind with those eyes, and weird with that funny hair color, not black, or blue, but blue-purple. Of course, everyone in the Hyuuga household had those, thanks to inbreeding, but at least most of them could utilize the Byakugan without too much effort.

Hinata was the exception. Her range of sight was pitifully short, and the only thing she was good at was the Sixty-four Palms, and that wasn't any great achievement.

Technically, anyone could use the Gentle Fist, as long as they had exceptional chakra control and a large enough store of chakra, because if they hit randomly without the Byakugan and were lucky enough to score a tenketsu (it wasn't hard, there were a lot of those), their opponent would still be disabled.

The Byakugan just made it a lot faster and simpler.

W-what was she doing! She was dissecting and practically betraying her clan's secret techniques! And stuttering even in her thoughts!

It was official. Hyuuga Hinata was a total loser.

She poked her index fingers together and then scowled at herself. She thought she'd broken that habit. Anyone walking by would wonder at her expression, since such a negative emotion was rarely displayed, by her at least. Thankfully the servants were preparing for lunch.

Heavy, sure footsteps sounded behind her. Without looking back, she knew it was her father – whom she wished wasn't her father. Strange, but who could blame her?

"Hinata, follow me."

Her father's voice commanded and then he walked away, with the air of one who knows he must be obeyed. He didn't even look back to check if she was trailing behind, hands tucked demurely, because it was a given that Hinata would follow rules till her death.

They reached the den of doom – or rather, his office. Her bare feet were soundless against the polished wooden floors, like a cat's.

"Sit."

Sitting down himself, he looked expectantly at her. While looking stern at the same time, of course. Hiashi had mastered the art of looking stern while looking anything at all. Whatever he did was surrounded by an aura of stern-ness. He practically invented being stern, just like how the Hyuugas had practically invented glaring, what with all that going on during clan meetings.

Admit it – it was freaky to have someone with pale pupil-less white eyes glare at you. Although it was true that the Uchihas, the other great Dojutsu clan in Konoha, could glare pretty well too. When their Sharingan was activated, nothing scared people so much as flat, bloody eyes with tadpole-things swirling inside.

Unless, of course, it was dilated white eyes with bulky veins rising up on the temples of one's head. The Byakugan scared people on a daily basis, which was Hyuuga – 1, Uchiha – 0.

Hiashi coughed slightly, noticing that Hinata was daydreaming before his presence. Now, that he would not tolerate. Befriending that Kyuubi container was bad enough, but apparently his rebellious ways had rubbed off on her. He hoped she wasn't forgetting all the heiress training she had received. But maybe that wouldn't be necessary after all…

With a start, he recalled the purpose of this conversation. Steeling himself (because although he might seem like a coldhearted bastard, he didn't like disappointing his daughter who was the spitting image of his late deceased wife) to begin, he steepled his fingers and took a steadying breath.

"I understand you did not make Chuunin during the exams, Hinata."

"Y-yes, father."

She tried not to look horrified at that little stammer escaping her normally well-controlled lips. Well controlled before her father, anyway. She couldn't afford to let him think she was any weaker. Kami knew the situation was bad enough.

"I expect you to retake it this year, of course. And I do not expect a failure again, Hinata."

"Yes, father."

It was calmer this time – cooler. He looked approving of that, but one couldn't ever tell with Hyuugas. You know, when you think about it, their all-seeing eyes didn't exactly see a whole lot.

Getting up, he strode out, but before exiting he turned and frowned at her. Frowns were almost as bad as the glares. Hinata absently wondered if he would get frown lines, and then wondered if she would too, when she was expected to be the clan leader and glare and frown like the rest of them.

"I expect no failures. There will be no exception. You are to make Chuunin. If you fail again, I will have the cursed seal placed on you, and Hanabi will be made the heiress. You will be relocated to the branch family. Do I make myself clear?"

Then again, maybe she wouldn't have to frown and glare.

Without waiting for an answer (because honestly, what could she say?), he swept away, leaving his words behind to effectively and coldly cut her like kunai. The things he didn't say hurt her more, however. What would it take for him to say "I'm proud of you,"?

The things he didn't say.

She couldn't fail. Not this time.

xXxXx

She felt empty. Hollowed out. No feelings left.

She had failed.

Again.

_Again._

She hadn't even gotten past the written exam stage. Kiba, Kiba of all people, had elected not to answer question 10. He already knew what was coming! Yet he had purposely raised his hand and told them that he didn't feel like continuing.

Of course, she couldn't blame him, she knew the exams were tiring and mentally stressful, but Kiba! If even he wanted to quit, she might as well chuck her headband now.

The entire team had been disqualified. It was so humiliating – no one this year had decided not to answer, and they were the only ones getting up and walking out, even though everyone knew Kiba had done it.

What was worse that her father hadn't listened to her. Before she got home, someone had told someone else, and that someone else had told her father. She had a suspicion that 'someone' was Neji and 'someone else' was Hanabi. Talk traveled fast in Konoha.

She hadn't known that he had known. She'd quietly explained it to him, and he had quietly listened. Then he had exploded. Really loudly.

That night, she had a new collection of injuries, and then some. _He must have been really angry this time, _she mused, _this is the first time he used kunai. _

Her fingers roved the long, angry red slits on her arms and legs. If you looked closely, you could see the barest hint of muscle under her chalky skin. The red looked almost grotesque on her skin tone.

They weren't closing up properly, so she applied some medicinal cream.

Hey, how do you think she was such an expert at making it? Naturally, it comes of having to treat herself so often.

The cuts were very carefully and expertly placed. Nowhere where it would damage her permanently, but in places which hurt enough for tears to overflow. Salt water splashed into her wounds, and she winced. That was a mistake – a wave of nausea enveloped her, her body still unused to the seal on her forehead.

Strange she didn't want to cry, not so much anymore. Not when she thought of the streak of green on her forehead, caging her now and forever.

She never knew how Neji felt about his seal, but she could guess pretty accurately now.

It hurt.

xXxXx

The kimono rustled and she froze, hoping no one had heard her. When no one ran out looking for intruders, she relaxed and continued tiptoeing out.

Her feet traced the moonlight on the well-worn back path, leading to the forest. Silvery, almost liquid-looking light fell on her face, highlighting the pale ivory of her skin. Cicadas chirped and she shivered. The noise had always made her feel lonely, and she had enough of that.

Grass tickled the sides of her feet, encased in her most ornate pair of clogs, as she ghosted silently into the forest with its towering trees that seemed like sentinels. Shadows quietly hid the rivulets of pearly tears streaming from her eyes.

Moments later, she had run her way up with chakra-enhanced feet to the tallest tree in Konoha. She was proud of herself for having done that – a kimono was _not _easy to run in, and she'd never gone such a long distance. It was ironical how she seemed doomed to fail at everything except her death. Because that was what she was trying to achieve right now.

Still a perfect lady, she dangled on the unsteady branch, ankles crossed and hands intertwined on her lap. The smooth fabric of the kimono reminded her of the troubles she had gone through before going out.

A thin layer of foundation covered her face, with more-heavily applied mascara and dark eyeliner. The intricate hairstyle she'd teased her hair into bore testament of the effort she had put in.

The gold pins in her hair seemed to all be sticking in uncomfortable spots and the dress was starting to annoy her. Caressing tendrils of wind touched her face gently, the only kind of gentleness she had ever known. She would be glad that when she had left (she refused to say 'died') she wouldn't need to bother about dressing up and dolling herself into something she wasn't.

All her father ever asked of her was a mask, a mask hiding what she truly was inside, but she couldn't give even that. She would be relieved to escape this world.

But of course, the foundation was something other than makeup. It was there to hide the ugly curse mark on her forehead – she would _not _die with it. When they found her body, they would see her as usual, smiling and _not _marked.

And they would find her body. She had no doubt of that. This time, she wasn't going to give up halfway – she was determined to die.

There. She had said it. All that was left was to do it.

Her mind went over her plan cold-bloodedly. She would throw herself off. If the fall didn't kill her, she would utilize the very handy kunai tucked in her obi. If _that _didn't kill her, because she couldn't aim properly or something, she would eat the small green pill concealed in a ring encircling her finger. That was a definite end.

But it was a little slow, and she didn't look forward to lingering in pain for hours while it took effect.

It was such a change from her usual personality that she laughed – a high, shrill laugh of surprise at herself. Before she scared away more birds, she steeled her mind and shut her mouth tightly.

Hinata looked down from her perch. The distance was dizzying, but she would welcome, embrace even, the beautiful numbness that came with death. No more pain, no more fear, no more hatred.

She was thinking too much. All she needed to do was let go. While she was loosening her fingers from around the trunk (because fear had made her muscles seize up, and they were curled into claws around the bark), a furry animal, a squirrel, a something, scampered across her hand. The unexpected movement made her relax her hold and –

A raw, horrifying scream dug its way out of her throat. She was falling. Her kimono stayed more or less in place, due to the tight fabric, the unemotional and logical part of her mind observed, whereas the emotional and decidedly _not _logical part of her mind was whimpering in fear.

The wind sliced past her tear-cooled cheeks and stopped abruptly. All the breath was knocked out of her as she found herself dangling limply by her obi suddenly. She went lifeless in relief (relief at what? Not dying?) but then stiffened. Someone was holding her up. Who had stopped her?

Twisting and writhing, Hinata managed to somehow or other look into the face of her unwanted rescuer.

Her thought processes halted temporarily. He was definitely, by far, the best piece of eye-candy she had ever seen – and who cared if that flitting, random thought was surprisingly out of character? _Nothing _she was doing now was in character.

The visible half of his face had a sculpted jaw and a high, straight nose. His skin was illuminated from behind, where the one-eyed moon stared at the tableau they made.

One eye, lined black, blinked at her, the iris obscured by the thin lid for a moment.

It was blue – as blue as the rolling, foaming sea, as blue as the wide, free sky on a cloudless day, as blue as misery. In short, the loveliest blue her eyes had ever touched upon. Maybe it was because misery was something she understood to perfection. It was a little like Naruto's blue, but more experienced and more worldly.

Half of a mouth drew upwards into a… not exactly a smile, something like a maniacal grin of amusement.

With a jerk, she started thinking again. He looked so much like Naruto, gone punk and with long hair. Could it be…?

No, it wasn't him. Her savior had nicer features, she thought, almost possessively. The eye shape was all wrong – her savior's were slanted, more mature somehow. Plus, an Iwagakure headband with a savage scratch through it – what?

_Missing-nin_, she thought, going faint (which didn't make much difference to her already-limp state). Her eyes lit upon his cloak, black as the sky above them with bloody red patches curled into clouds. _Akatsuki. Akatsuki. Akatsuki? _

Evidently, he hadn't expected her to move anytime soon. They had been half-frozen, with him clutching her obi like his lifeline and with her turned around slightly, eyes wide and staring. So when she shrieked and wriggled, he almost let go of her. He might have thought she was a burning coal from the way he reacted. Encouraged, she fidgeted harder. "What do you think you're doing, yeah?"

For the second time in an hour, she froze into a wax-statue lookalike. And for the second time, it was something about him which stunned her. That voice. It was very masculine and a little raspy. He definitely wasn't Naruto.

Before he could do something stupid, like persuade her to continue living, she tried kicking at him. It was ineffectual, to put it nicely. Drat that long obi!

"No, seriously, what are you doing, yeah?"

That was it; she snapped. Life was irritating her. "I'm trying to commit s-suicide, in case you can't tell!" She stumbled over 'suicide', but went right on trying to kick him. Hopefully, the wooden clogs she was wearing would fly off and hit him in his perfect nose.

"Not on my watch, yeah," he said, smiling _that_ smile again, before yanking on the obi so hard she (in that order) bounced up to his level like a yo-yo, attempted to hit him with her Gentle Fist, missed, fell back down, got the wind knocked out of her by the sudden tightening of her obi around her narrow waist, gasped, did a somersault and back-flip right onto the gigantic clay bird he was sitting on (funny how she only just noticed it. Then again, it didn't seem to strange compared to him), landed in an ungainly heap and then refused to look at him.

First-grade immaturity, she knew, but what else could she do?

Attack him with the kunai?

Actually, that wasn't a half-bad idea. Just that it was plain unintelligent of her to try and disarm an Akatsuki member with a single kunai. Other than that, it was pretty much foolproof. What's the worse that could happen? Her kunai would explode in her face?

She drew it from her obi silently and quickly, before whirling around to chuck it into his face. Another hit at that darned handsome nose of his.

"Whoa, yeah!" He exclaimed and put his hands up. Not the smartest thing to do, especially not when a sharp, pointy kunai was lunging for his features. But something must have crawled from his sleeve (she had an inkling that the huge clay centipede coiling around her weapon was his), because it flew from her hands.

The as-yet unknown Akatsuki member motioned for the centipede to fling itself off the bird and with a short "Katsu!" it exploded. Almost right in her face, incidentally.

_Dear Kami, if he manages to save me from depression and suicidal tendencies, I promise never, ever to think stupid things ever again. _

Hinata clasped her hands and thought hurriedly. Evidently, the member found her funny as he pried her hands apart and stuck his face into hers. "What are you doing, yeah?"

She looked away from him, only to stare right at his hands…

…which were licking hers energetically?

_What were those things_, she wondered. Hm. Things that resembled mouths, on his palms, which were (there was no other word for it) tasting her hands – she concluded it was some twisted form of Kekkei Genkai. It was strange how it didn't faze her. But she'd pretty much gotten used to the weird the moment she set eyes on him. It wasn't that hard, since she didn't even know anything about him and was discovering weirder and weirder things.

Shall we examine the case? Point one: He looked eerily like Naruto. Point two: He was a hyperactive missing-nin. Point three: An Akatsuki just saved her life. Point four: Well, if she kept this up, there would be too many to name.

But anyway, since she had always been weird herself, it was like the pot calling the kettle black to think _he _was weird.

Although, okay, true, there was an entire clan of Byakugan users who looked just as weird as her but she'd never seen anyone else with mouths on their palms. Both of them were still weird.

Weird, weird, weird. So maybe she had a fixation. Who cared?

He noticed her staring at his hands and pulled them behind his back, staring at her defiantly, daring her to comment on them. Yes, okay, so he was sensitive about them. She didn't have to blatantly stare like she'd never seen them before (which she never had)! They made for a really easy way to mold clay and imbibe them with chakra, but people always viewed him as a freak after finding out.

He would have liked to keep it hidden for a bit longer. Talk about starting off on the wrong foot – he would have liked it if the first impression the Hyuuga had of him was _dashing, heroic, hot rescuer _and not _freakazoid with mouths on his hands which like to lick her damn them. _

The guy pulled them further behind his back and Hinata's eyes softened at his defensive movement. She didn't really find it _that _weird (well, not that much at any rate) and she thought it was a pity for him to be embarrassed/ashamed of things that were so obviously beyond his control.

The stupid, independent part of him scowled at her. He didn't want her pity! He wanted her – ah, but that would be telling.

Making a face to himself, he decided that he didn't like forgetting to wear gloves. And then he saw her looking at him making a face, and he almost (almost) blushed.

Before either of them screwed things up further, he decided they'd better get back to the Akatsuki base. And hopefully to some gloves. And a manual where he could find out how to control the stupid things, because right now his amount of control was hovering somewhere in between _NIL _and _less than Naruto had sense. _Effectively, NIL.

With a big flap of its clay wings, the bird soared above the tree and Konoha and the great, shining river running through Konoha. Emphasis on the great, shining river. Hinata looked at it twisting about and idly wondered what it was like.

And then Hinata got another one of her ideas. Seriously, she'd been having way too many of those.

_To be continued. _

**A/N: I hope Deidara wasn't too OOC, I don't think I'm very good at writing him. I keep digressing! And Hinata – I hope she doesn't sound like Sakura. Much. **

**R&R please! And if you have any questions at all, PM or review, thanks! I love clearing things up (: **

**If you're a fan of DeiHina (which I assume you are since you're reading this), go check out TheWindAlchemist or Digital Skitty. They rock, and they are my inspiration for DeiHina stories. **


	2. Stupid Shinobi

**A/N: Hi everyone! I've been completed stuffed with ideas, so this update is a little late. Currently I'm deliberating between posting the first chapter of everything and asking in a poll which one I should update first, or sticking to this story like superglue till I'm done. **

**I have a reviewer to thank (a lot actually), since he/she is anonymous and I can't reply in a PM. **

**To ****The Donut Lord****, thanks so much for your lovely long review! I was so happy after I read it :D It was so encouraging –sniffs- I hope you review more! **

**Thanks ****KraZiiePyrozHavemoreFun**** (whoa, your name is really hard to spell )! I completely agree with you about the fact that the Hyuuga Clan's Main Branch is full of stuck up idiots. But still, they have the Byakugan – that's like, automatically cool in my book. **

**Anyway, this is getting a little (very) long. Hope you enjoy this chapter, and you haven't skipped my author's note/got bored to death by reading it :D Don't forget to review! Let's do the math: **

**More reviews = happier me = faster updates = happier readers = more reviews (I hope) **

**Onwards! **

**Disclaimer: Yeah, I so obviously own Naruto, because Hinata is completely not having enough screen time. DUH, I don't. **

**xXxXx**

Chapter Two – Stupid Shinobi

She wasn't sure if it would work on him. After all, he was an S-Class criminal, and in Akatsuki to boot. But she had to try. She had no idea what he wanted with her, but anything was better than slumping here like a sitting duck. Besides, where had that determination fueled by Naruto gone?

Halfway to Kiri, by the looks of it. Kami, she really didn't want to do this.

"A-Akatsuki-san!" Alright, it was a dumb name, but she didn't know anything else about him. And calling him Bird-san or Blond-san or even Naruto-lookalike-san was dumber.

Well, time for her _secret weapon_. Her _ace up her sleeve_. Her – oh, never mind.

"L-look over there!" she exclaimed, trying to infuse the correct amount of astonishment in her voice and eyes, while pointing over his shoulders.

Yes, folks. The look-over-there move. Right after the words leaped off her lips, she collapsed in on herself. That was never going to work with him! She was an imbecile for even thinking about it! Here she was, not bound, gagged, drugged or sealed, in full possession of her jutsu and probably able to attack the Akatsuki member with a Jyuuken and at least not die a terribly terrible death and the best she could do was _Hey look over there! _

Definitely, she deserved failing the Chuunin exams. Twice.

Her only excuse: The bird might wobble and throw them off if she poked him with her chakra-enhanced fingers, since she didn't know how it was controlled. Was it controlled by his chakra (in that case it would detonate or something if she Jyuuken-ed him) or by an outside force (say, strings? But where would the strings come from?)? Dang it, she was only doing one thing by thinking like this: confusing herself. Then she might accidentally Jyuuken him and they would be thrown off.

And that would be bad, because then she would fall, die and actually accomplish her suicide, so it didn't sound that bad after all.

But guess what?

"Huh?" _And he turned around to look. _

How on earth did he get into the Akatsuki? Did he manage to sort of bamboozle the leader into letting him in, because he was definitely confusing her, and was being confusing a proper jutsu? At any rate, while he was busy trying to spot, oh, I don't know, maybe huge wave of sand from nowhere or another gigantic clay bird maybe, Hinata was just-as-busily sneaking to the edge of the bird.

xXxXx

When he finally realized that there was no huge wave of sand and turned back around, she was gone. The only thing left of her was the jasmine-scented perfume trailing in the air, and a strange emptiness on the left of his bird. It was like she had never been there.

And then he realized that she had fooled him with her innocent eyes, cute pout, fragile appearance, and the oldest trick in the book.

"Damn it, yeah!"

Frantically, he scrabbled to the edge of the bird and looked down. A small, purple speck was hurtling towards the ground at an unbelievable speed. His scope zoned in on her, and yep, it was definitely the Hyuuga.

"Crap, yeah."

Without thinking twice (there was no _time _for that!), he flung himself off and plummeted after her like a gold bullet. Wind sliced past his cheeks and whipped his hair around, covering his eyes, and for once he wondered what it would be like to cut his hair and look like a normal guy.

The bird stopped mid-flight in confusion and he detonated it, hoping the force would push him closer to the bent-on-suicide Hyuuga.

It blasted apart, dyeing the night sky a flaming red and gold and forcing him downwards a shade faster. Hopefully it hadn't affected the Hyuuga as well, but then she was too far down. Thank Kami he was flying fairly high up – it would be nasty if the distance wasn't far.

Seriously, though, he couldn't even enjoy the beauty of the moment because he was busy keeping a Hyuuga heiress who was way too much trouble from falling off a clay bird to her death. How much more could this situation suck?

Now that he was a little closer to ground-level, he could make out her aim. Apparently, she was trying to land smack bang in the middle of Konoha's river – incidentally the widest, deepest part of it too. His Akatsuki cloak billowed out around him and blocked his view for a second. Dammit, why were so many things keeping him from seeing his target clearly?

It was like Kami was telling him: _Let her die! Let her die! _

_Splash! _

The shinobi cursed softly under his breath. The situation could suck a lot more, apparently.

xXxXx

When Hinata landed (or rather, crash-landed in a belly flop which hurt like the dickens) in the river, she was glad that she had had the presence of mind to throw her wooden clogs in first to break the surface tension. Also that she had encased herself in a thin layer of chakra, so that she wouldn't flatten out when she touched the water.

Falling from a bird high up in the sky and being body-slammed into a river, which at that speed would be as hard as granite, wasn't really a satisfying way to go. And she had no intention of breaking bones which would be painful – it already hurt enough.

Drowning was a much better idea, which she proved by inhaling water as fast as possible when she was properly submerged. She activated her Byakugan in a bid to waste chakra, feeling the veins popping up on the sides of her head.

Hopefully the long-haired Naruto clone wouldn't find out soon enough. But honestly, what kind of shinobi was he?

She closed her eyes slowly, reveling in the peaceful death she was embracing. The backs of her eyelids were lit blue by the water, and her Byakugan-activated eyes could see her calm chakra coursing through her, the same shade as her eyelids. Cool, smooth water like bendable glass enveloped her like a cocoon.

That was before she got flipped upside down.

The Akatsuki member landed heavily in the water, evidently unprepared for finding her practically beneath him. Suddenly, it was no longer tranquil in the river. The water was frothing and bubbling, and it seemed to want to keep her in there very, very much.

It was like the river was schizophrenic, and had turned to the now-that-Hinata's-in-here-let's-drown-her personality. Of course it was technically her fault for being in there in the first place. But still.

He was almost mummified in that cloak of his, and water went up her nose and into the corners of her eyes, stinging them painfully. Bubbles were everywhere, and in places so thick with them you could hardly see anything behind.

He kicked wildly and their eyes met. Hinata saw the sudden fear in his, which came as quickly as the glint of his headband in the murky water, and left as quickly.

It was replaced with something scarier – a maniacal gleam of wanting to live.

Iwagakure, she remembered suddenly. Probably didn't like water all that much, and probably couldn't swim, which made her wonder why he bothered going down for her. Did the Akatsuki want her that much?

They must have gotten mixed up, she realized despondently. They must have thought she was Hanabi. Father would pay anything to get Hanabi back, whereas he'd probably pay the Akatsuki to kidnap Hinata and then tell Konoha that she'd gone missing and Hanabi had to be the new heiress and she was much more suited to it…

All of a sudden, she wanted to live – partly because the blond beside her was so vital and filled with life that she couldn't imagine him stone-cold and un-breathing, or even anyone else around him. Partly because he reminded her of Naruto (now, how many times has she said that?) and like Naruto, she wanted to prove everyone how wrong they were and how much she could achieve if she wanted to.

Naruto. Her crush. The boy she'd have done anything for.

Well, here's to remembering the past.

That instinctive urge to live got the better of her depressed mind and she struck out, trying to get to the surface. Her foot hit something, something like a boulder and she got enough leverage to rise up to the Akatsuki member's level. Something wrapped around her hand like a slimy eel and she wore her lungs out trying to scream underwater with lungs full of water.

She looked at her hand and gulped (as much as she could underwater, anyway).

It was his cloak – and it was dragging both of them down.

xXxXx

Hinata still had plenty of chakra left. She'd only expended some on running up that accursed tree and in activating her bloodline limit. That left a lot more.

Obviously, the shinobi beside her didn't have much left. She supposed it was her fault, what with attacking him and all. That bird, too. And he'd apparently tried a variety of methods to get out of the river with no success – and at a huge waste of chakra.

His lips were turning a pale blue, although that was hard to tell in the river's watery light. The mouths on his hand were sealed tight – thank Kami they weren't noses or something like that. She didn't need an imagination to guess how hard that would be to manage, underwater.

She also had a pretty good idea of how to get out of there. But it all depended on whether she could get him to stop struggling and on whether she'd have enough chakra left after she was through with that.

With a quick gauge, she was fairly sure she wouldn't. Using the Guardian Eight Trigrams: Sixty-four Palms would leave her exhausted and probably without enough energy to even pull both of them up to the bank. Actually, she wasn't very sure she could manage him by herself. He looked and felt a little heavier than she was used to, judging by the way he landed on her.

Wow. How fast could her brain cells rub together on the brink of death? And with no oxygen at all, too?

She wasn't sure she wanted to find out.

Why was she trying to save him? Well, for starters, she was wrapped to him by that cloak. If he died, she died. And even if she could have cut through it easily with a kunai, it was a hell of a lot more like her to save him. Shy, sweet little Hinata would never leave someone to die like that.

And rest assured, he would definitely die, left alone. The currents were picking up and she could have sworn it was a totally different river. At any rate, if she cut the cloak, it would be completely selfish of her.

So how to get him to stop struggling?

She picked the simplest, cleanest, fastest way.

She kissed him.

Now, she'd been saving her first kiss carefully for Naruto since the moment she first saw him. But she spent it on this virtual stranger, and she could have cried. She would, but she'd do it later, not in this river, about to drown, attached at the wrist to a handsome strange missing-nin.

And it didn't seem to matter so much, not when she was dying.

Apparently, near-death experiences did strange things to one's brains. Like scramble them beyond the point of medical help – but that wasn't the point.

The point was, they were both going to die and their corpses were going to float downstream into Konoha where everyone would probably laugh at her because even though she was such a huge failure she managed to drown an Akatsuki member but then die on him, unless she did something drastic.

Surprisingly, he relaxed against her. She could have sworn his lips smiled against hers. It was a little romantic, she figured. But still, it was no time to be indulging in this!

Wait.

She did _not _just say indulging.

Well, okay, she did. But how many cute guys were there who would willingly kiss her back? None, probably. None, definitely. Obviously, none. Did she mention she had a little bit of an insecurity problem?

His hands snaked around her waist, shocking her out of her spiraling-back-to-depression thoughts. Immediately, she yanked herself off him and frowned.

"I'm trying to save you here!" the words left her mouth as bubbles as she spoke, surprising her that she still had air left in her to chastise him. Or maybe she was just freaked out.

"I can save myself!" He bubbled back and then flailed his arms (as much as he could underwater, anyway) and looked even bluer in the face.

She did the smart thing and ignored him.

However, the river didn't seem to be done with them. With what Hinata would swear on oath was spite, a withered branch, sticking from the side of the river, hooked his cloak (his _stupid, stupid, stupid _cloak) and entangled him even further among the weeds. Long trailing strands of the greenish-grey plants floated around him and every move he made (which was a lot) made another weed block him from the surface. 

The way she saw it, there wasn't much choice left.

Surprisingly fierce, she drew her kunai from the holster on her thigh and started ripping into the cloak mercilessly. It was a little harder, because the water made the fibers heavy and tough, but she managed it and extricated his form from the mess.

He was only wearing a mesh shirt over dark pants and her fingers brushed his flat stomach accidently while freeing him of the tattered remains of what was once an Akatsuki cloak.

_Oh my K-Kami, _she stuttered in her mind, _h-he has a-abs! _

_B-Bad Hinata! Stop staring at him so s-shamelessly! _

Being an intelligent kunoichi, she took her own advice and wrenched her eyes from the sight.

Also, being a careful kunoichi, she shoved him out and onto the bank first before she did something particularly stupid, like take advantage of his unconscious state in the water. Yes, he was unconscious. See what thinking about his gorgeous body led to?

Breaking the surface, she shook her head, her hair sending droplets into the air, shimmering like something beautiful. The air was the sweetest thing she had ever tasted and she sucked it in hungrily, in a deep lungful. She would think about the rawness and pain in her throat later. That could wait.

But that was _before _the idiot missing-nin rolled over and squished her back underwater. His arm was flung across and hit her on the head, making her fall back into the water. He stayed on the bank, but Hinata wasn't that lucky.

Something, probably a rock, clunked against the back of her head and she saw stars for a moment, spiraling around her. They were beautiful, white-hot sparks that left behind black spots on her eyes.

Then she saw nothing at all, except the cool darkness sliding over her eyelids, blanking out her senses, and she slipped gratefully into a sleep where she didn't have to be responsible.

_To be continued. _

**xXxXx**

**A/N: I wish it could have been longer, but I couldn't resist ending at a cliffy. Please review! And I just realized that the format for the first chapter is all wrong, god. **

**Do your good deed for the day by reviewing! Thank you very much! **


	3. Ticklish

**A/N: ****Hi guys! So this is chapter three. I hope I got Deidara's character down alright. Oh, and can someone tell me when reviews start to pick up? I'm like, getting less and less for each chapter, and I'm a little discouraged. **

**I just watched the Bikochu anime filler episodes, and Hinata is just so freaking cute! But at the end her dad's a little nicer to her, which makes me feel guilty for portraying him so badly here. **

**Alex: Thanks so much! Hope you like the rest of it too! **

**Yuti-chan: I know! But I think I made her sound too unhappy about it. More DeiHina moments coming up! **

**KraZiiePyrozHavemoreFun: By the way, when you say 'Pyroz' in your authorname are you referring to Deidara? **

**Disclaimer: **

**Me: I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight… Please let Naruto belong to me! **

**Copyright guy: Nope, try again tomorrow. **

**Me: Dang it! **

**xXxXx**

Chapter Three – Ticklish

"Oh great, you're awake, yeah!" A chipper voice sounded from above her. _Above…? Who the heck was on top of her? _

The heavy black pressing down on her eyelids forced down harder than ever when she struggled to open them and then let go suddenly, so that her eyes blinked open all of a sudden, making her look like a surprised rabbit. She fluttered them, trying to make the black spots go away. It wasn't very funny to find a lot of them doing the tango in her vision.

Strange, the ways the dots were superimposed on a blue-black background. She thought it was nighttime, not afternoon.

"Hey, are you okay, yeah?" Now the voice held definite concern. _How sweet_, she thought faintly for a moment. But then she wondered why it was so loud, and she could almost feel the vibration in the air from the person's throat.

Then the rest of her brain processed it and she bounced up from her lying-down position suddenly, knocking right into the person who was crouched above her, peering into her face with an eye.

Painfully, her head mushed against his. She hadn't known he was that close! Close enough for his one blue eye to block out everything else! What was he playing at!

An embarrassingly red blush painted its way across her pale cheeks as she watched him stagger backwards, clutching his forehead. She reached for her own forehead and winced in pain. No thanks to his _metal _forehead protector, there was a red lump on her forehead to match her cheeks.

"Ow, yeah! What did you do that for, yeah?"

"G-gomen nasai, Akatsuki-san!" The flush on her face deepened until she could have cooked an egg on her head with minimum trouble with heating.

"It's okay, yeah. Are you alright, you're kinda red, yeah," he said, walking back to her and studying her expression and (very red) face carefully.

It couldn't be that bad, could it?

Hinata turned to the river and although she couldn't make out her features in the ever-changing surface, she could definitely see a bright red patch swimming in there somewhere. It wasn't even a tasteful shade of red; it was this shade of red which no one on earth had probably ever seen before.

Okay, so it was that bad.

She made an 'eep' sound and jumped backwards, horrified at the colour of her face. With another 'eep', she realized that she had crashed right into the Akatsuki member and he windmilled his arms frantically, trying to keep his balance, while all the while tipping slowly, unavoidably backwards. Almost there – almost there – almost!

No such luck.

Honestly, what was with her and shoving him around?

With a final, desperate 'eep', she landed right on top of him (_now who's on top of who?_ She thought blearily) and they both toppled onto the ground, making a soft thudding noise like a tree being felled from far away.

Hinata wiggled around to face him and apologize properly, but then became very aware of his bare chest, stripped of the mesh shirt as well. She froze in position, with her hand resting on those much-revered abs and her mouth open like a hungry goldfish. A hungry goldfish who incidentally only ate eye candy.

He reached over and pushed her mouth back up, before chuckling to himself. "Look, I'm enjoying this and all, but we need to get back, so could you stand up, yeah?"

Blushing so hard she bypassed her previous colour and went completely off the charts, she scrambled off him, making sure not fall clumsily again.

"Um, Akatsuki-san, w-where is your, um, c-cloak?" She whispered, making her index fingers meet again. She wanted to know where the heck it was _now_ and why it wasn't doing its job of keeping him decently covered up, especially when she most needed it.

But she felt like she was being too bold, so to compensate, she ducked her head and hid behind her bangs after she spoke.

"Hmm, you mean this, yeah?" He sounded as if he was suppressing amusement, but only just succeeding.

Not liking his tone of voice, she peeked up from behind her hair and dry swallowed. Oh, yes. She had forgotten about how she had basically hacked it to pieces in an attempt to save both their lives. Right.

He held the monstrosity by the merest edge, index finger and thumb pinching it lightly, and as far away from his body as possible.

It was being kind to call it a cloak, even. The clouds were unrecognizable and it could have fit onto a zebra with minimal effort. Black strips swayed in the wind and –she gulped– it was beyond frayed.

"You did a pretty good job, yeah. I'm wondering what you got against the Akatsuki or more specifically our cloaks, yeah."

It was a poor attempt of lightening the mood. Hinata didn't bother to smile, as she usually would have done, because thinking of the effort she took to rescue him led her to think of… other things.

"Yeah, Leader-sama's not going to be too happy about that. But the way I figure it, he'd rather I bring you back than an unharmed cloak, yeah?"

That line made her remember how the Akatsuki were probably after Hanabi. "A-Akatsuki-san, I think you have the w-wrong person," she said.

Now the criminal would look at her and re-evaluate and hate her too. He would hate her for wasting his time and then he would probably fling her into the river and go back for Hanabi-chan and her family would hate her for not stopping him even though there seriously was no way for her to try that and succeed because somehow or other she was supposed to.

She took a big, shaky breath after her mind ran through that sentence. Good thing he wasn't looking at her.

He was pulling out a scroll from his bag, which had a picture (of her?) on it. The Akatsuki member held it up next to her and tilted his head, thinking. His eyes jumped from it to her, and back again, a few times, before he shook his head and said "No, I'm pretty sure I have the right one, yeah. Your face is pretty artistic, yeah." Then he made a photo frame with his fingers and framed her head.

"Now, stop insulting my memory and help me pack, yeah. I still need to think of how to explain this cloak to Leader-sama, yeah."

He turned and started to shove his cloak into the pack.

What were they doing with a picture of her? And what did he mean, her face was artistic? A second shade of red layered her first blush and she could almost feel the steam radiating from her face.

"Akatsuki-san, w-what happened just now?" She was curious (and also trying to cool her face down). She would have thought that she was a goner, but miraculously, she was alive. Of course she was curious. But then she also didn't want to leave the situation as it was – him stuffing his pack mercilessly, her standing awkwardly with fingers itching to press against each other.

"Ah, you pushed me up and I regained consciousness, yeah. Then I had to look for you with a long stick," he gestured to a sopping wet stick on the ground, "because as you could already tell, I can't swim, yeah. Heh." She wondered again how he became one of the Akatsuki. Couldn't he do any better than using a _long stick_?

"When I found you, I had to… um…" then he stopped and scratched at his head. It was his turn to flush, and it seemed like Hinata's blush peeled off her face and stuck onto his.

"What h-happened?" she asked, hoping it wasn't anything bad. Then again, not much would seem 'bad' after what she already did.

"Well, I had to, um, perform-mouth-to-mouth-resuscitation-because-you-were-unconscious." He gabbled the last bit and then looked down, as if in shame. "Yeah," he tacked on as an afterthought.

"Excuse me?"

"Ihadtodomouth-to-mouth," he repeated, a little less jumbled up. "Yeah."

"I see," she mumbled. Great. Her second kiss as well. Oh well, not like she was saving _that _one for anyone special.

"I'm really sorry about that, Hyuuga-chan, yeah! I didn't mean to, you know, steal your first kiss or anything. I'll make it up to you, yeah."

He looked honestly flustered and she felt bad for him. Can't have been very fun kissing her, she knew.

"Ano, it's a-alright… I already had my f-first kiss, remember? When I was t-trying to save you," she murmured.

"You did? I thought that was a dream, yeah. A very good dream, but still a dream, yeah."

Put that blatantly, she (and he) blushed like mad. Now they were two figures, both as red as glo-sticks and not moving anytime soon. "Whoops, yeah. Did I say that out loud, yeah? Well, you weren't supposed to hear that, yeah. If it helps, yeah." Apparently, when he got embarrassed, he said 'yeah' more often.

And then she smacked herself in the head (figuratively. Although she didn't _really_ care, she also didn't _really_ want him to think she was certifiably insane) for taking note of that.

When she didn't move and seemed to be stuck forever, blushing and poking her fingers with petrified wide eyes, he sighed noisily and dropped down to the ground. "You were the one who asked, okay?"

Then he burrowed around the river banks, seeming to look for something. When he noticed that she wasn't moving and was staring blankly at the space he used to stand, he pursed his mouth. Finally, he came up with an idea, more or less for the purpose of not having to hand over a traumatized girl to Leader-sama.

Also because he didn't want it to be completely awkward on his bird later. That would be… _awkward. _But yeah, mostly because he didn't want Leader-sama to have his head for handing over a traumatized target.

"Hyuuga-chan! Don't just stand there, get down here and help me dig for mud, yeah!"

"H-hai!" Hinata said, jumping a little at his voice. She tried to forget about that embarrassing episode. As of now, it never happened. It was a glitch in her brain. She was hallucinating. It was a side-effect of hallucinogens which had been secretly fed to her. _Whatever. _At any rate, the last ten minutes had not happened.

As they were both kneeling by the bank, she wondered again why he had her picture. And more importantly, what did the Akatsuki want with someone like her?

"Akatsuki-san, why do you have my p-picture and what does the A-Akatsuki want with m-me?" She tried poking her fingers together, but the mud around the tips made her fingers slide. They had a nice big lump of the brownish sludge by the riverbank already. Of course, it was for his jutsus, but Hinata didn't see how he was going to bring it back without it sticking to everything.

Apparently he didn't really mind though – he was almost elbow-deep in mud, and loving it.

"Well, the Akatsuki gave me your picture, yeah. Now why don't you tell me your name, yeah?" He obviously ignored the latter question and then changed the subject without too much tact.

She sighed. But then, the so-called Leader-sama would probably tell her… although if it was something like digging out her eyes for the Byakugan, it would be a little too late by then. Not to mention the leader would be raging when he realized she had been caged.

"I'm Hyuuga Hinata," she said softly. Should she tell him about the caging…?

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Hinata-chan, I'm Deidara, yeah," he replied cheerfully and stuck his hand out. Then he realized it was coated in layers of mud and the mouth was licking it away. "Oh." He started to draw it back and stuff it back into the mud, but to his amazement, the shy little Hyuuga grasped it tightly for a moment, to the protests of the mouth.

Her hand felt very small in his, like a child's, or a butterfly resting softly against him and he didn't move for a second. Then the mouth started licking at her hand as well and she twitched it back.

Well, he knew it was too good to last. She was trying to show him that she didn't care if he was a freak or not, but still, who could accept this sort of deformation with ease?

Until he realized that she was trying to stifle a giggle.

"Oh, you're ticklish, yeah?"

He grinned at her, his eyes looking very maniacal all of a sudden.

"Wait, wait!" Her hands blocked his sight of her face and she squealed.

"Yeah? Don't try and stop me, yeah! It's futile, yeah! Give up resistance, yeah!" He cackled before pulling her hands away. Honestly, he was like a little kid who realized that Christmas came early or something. And then found the really big pile of clay under the tree. Along with the book _Molding Clay for Dummies_, yeah.

"Um, I just…" she looked around, obviously scouting for possible other-subjects which would make him forget about her ticklish-ness.

"Why m-me?"

After she saw his reaction, she almost wished that she had given up and gotten tickled.

_Almost. _

I mean, who knew what he would do with those tongues if she had allowed him to tickle her? Think a tickle-fest, with a magnitude of the last Great Shinobi War. And then shudder in horror.

He sat down with a flop, a suddenly serious expression on his face. "Okay, you asked. Well, Leader-sama sort of needs someone with the Byakugan, yeah. And you were chosen because of… uh, qualities. Yeah. 'Sides, joining the Akatsuki's a great honor, Hinata-chan… if you make it past the trials, that is."

Alright, she could infer three things from that: One, they were most likely going to dig out her eyes after all, so thank Kami she was caged. Two, she had 'qualities'. If she could play to her strengths maybe she didn't have to die – but then again, maybe her qualities were "possess the Byakugan". In which case, she could already be considered as dead. Three, Deidara was a big, big fan of the Akatsuki.

She was going to pretend she didn't hear that last, muttered line.

"So isn't joining Akatsuki better than committing suicide, yeah? We're not all that bad, Hinata-chan, yeah."

That, she believed.

"Hop on, yeah."

And she held his hand as he pulled her onto the bird, mud forgotten.

_To be continued. _

**xXxXx**

**A/N: Review please! Thanks for reading! **


	4. What A Great Start

**A/N: ****'Sup! This is chapter four of Déjà Vu – I feel so accomplished! *\^-^/* **

**The Donut Lord: Thanks! Hope you think this is longer (: **

**KraZiiePyrozHavemoreFun****: Yay! I can't believe so many people find DeiHina freakishly cute. **

**Yuti-Chan: Thanks for raising that question! **

"**But I have a question: Is Deidara really a big fan of Akatsuki... I mean he had been forced to join. Perhaps he just doesn't want to scare Hinata? She will be forced to join Akatsuki, too..." **** I think Deidara has a make-the-best-of-a-bad-situation attitude, and besides I plan on portraying Akatsuki in a lighter, not too 'evil-villians-of-the-century'-ish way, and it's not going to seem so bad. And Hinata's going to want to join the Akatsuki, because of reasons (cough Deidara cough), and honestly, when you think about it, it has got to be better than facing her father. **

**So I hope that cleared up any similar questions other people might have! **

**And sorry for not updating for such a long time, my usage of the computer has been a little restricted :D **

**Disclaimer: I'm running out of ways to say NO THE HELL I DON'T OWN NARUTO. **

**xXxXx**

Chapter Four – What A Great Start

Hinata could see why Deidara (sans last name, strangely) loved his birds so much. She could see the entire Konoha and its forests and even the Hokage Mountain from up there. Pinkish light of a new dawn was spreading across the sky like strawberry jam, followed closely by a Naruto-esque orange. Put simply, it was beautiful. And they had front-row seats to this.

She turned to look at him. His blond hair was fluttering behind him, like a victory banner, and it made her smile. How could she ever have thought that he was _anything_ like Naruto?

A few moments of silence passed, until she came to a realization which hit her with the same impact a sack of cement would. A _heavy_ sack of _wet_ cement.

_Stockholm! _

What if the reason she felt so comfortable around him was due to his passing resemblance to her friend? What if she developed severe Stockholm due to that, and didn't ever want to leave him, and clung on to him like his number one fan and refused to go?

Technically, she had never felt comfortable around the friend he resembled. She remembered fainting every time Naruto came close enough… and she hadn't fainted yet with this person. A personal record.

Unless you counted the time she was pushed by him into the water and lost consciousness. Accidentally.

She screwed up her forehead and pushed it to the back of her mind. This guy had _nothing _on Naruto in terms of making her embarrassed. Let's see, how many times had she fainted around Naruto?

One, two, three, four, five… oh, this was impossible. If she went down this train of thought she could very well collapse right here, now. How could she ever have been so stupid before her crush! Kami, she wouldn't ever blame Naruto again for not liking her.

See, that was why Stockholm was impossible. Hinata Hyuuga hadn't fainted around him yet, and to be honest? She would swear that Naruto didn't have abs like Deidara did.

_What? _

Did she just – did she just – yes she did. The heir of the Hyuuga Clan just admitted to comparing the stomach muscles of a rogue-nin and a hyperactive knucklehead. Crap, this whole kidnapping thing was going straight to her head.

Actually, she wouldn't have minded sitting on this clay bird for hours until they got to wherever the Akatsuki was situated, sorting through her thoughts, smoothing them out and basically making sense of her traitor mind. But then she would have to delve into a deep sea of malformed ideas and the like, and she really wasn't looking forward to it.

_What are you more scared of: that you can't figure them out, or that you can? _

Wonderfully, as if he was reading her mind and acting on cue, Deidara turned around, his hair curling into the wind.

"So, Hinata-chan, do you have any more questions about the Akatsuki, yeah? I think I can answer them now, since I don't think you're going to try and jump off the bird, _again_, yeah. You're not going to escape, are you, right?"

Unfortunately for Hinata, he scowled when he said the word 'again' and obviously disliked being made a fool of and made her flush right up to her ears. She _had _been rather mean to him, hadn't she? Of course, it didn't matter that he was probably going to kill her for her bloodline. She was Hinata, and he was a person she had been mean to, and anything else wasn't important. Being the person she was made her see things that way.

"A-ano, g-gomen nasai, Deidara-kun," she whispered so softly the wind caught her words and almost blew them off course.

"Whatever, yeah. So, questions, yeah!" That was when he fully let go of the bird's (clay) neck feathers and bounced around to face her.

"Could you tell m-me more about the A-Akatsuki, Deidara-kun?" Hinata smiled at him, steeling herself to hear about bloody murderers and gore and pain and a lot of other stuff she'd never liked. I mean, she hadn't even had her first kill yet, for freaking Kami's sake! Kiba, Shino and Kurenai never let her, because she was weak, because she would be upset, because they had to _protect _her. Her and her stupid fainting-at-smell-of-blood condition.

And her stupid thought that seasickness pills would help – she never tried _that _again, anyway.

"There's Leader-sama, and Flower-chan who's his partner. Oh, I forgot to mention, everyone has a partner because we function more efficiently with them, blah, blah, blah, yeah. Anyway that's what Leader-sama always says, yeah. You'll have to ask Sa- uh, I mean, Puppet-no-danna, if you want to know it all. He always listens to him, yeah."

He started ticking them off on his fingers, only to pause and frown when he said "Puppet-no-danna".

"A-are those their real names?" Hinata asked curiously. They sounded so _weird_.

"Well of course not, yeah! Did you think I was going to spill all the information so that you could run back to your village and tell them?"

"N-no!" Well, maybe the thought _had _crossed her mind, just once or twice.

"That's great, yeah. Now shush and listen to me, yeah.

"Next, there's me and Puppet-no-danna and we're partners and you are not allowed to listen him mangle the name of art, do you hear me, yeah? He's alright, but he's got the completely wrong idea when it comes to art, yeah. Can you believe what he thinks art is, yeah?"

"What?"

"Well… that would be telling, yeah. Wait and see! Um, then there's this guy who's partners with the traitor from your village, yeah. Him you should know, right?"

Hinata nodded. The Uchiha traitor who had massacred his entire clan, leaving only one very scarred, very hot (at least, the rest of the females in the village thought so), very bent-on-revenge avenger. She hoped she wouldn't have much to do with him in the Akatsuki.

"Then uh, two more people, and one who doesn't really have a partner. His official partner is a plant – no, I meant his official partner likes plants. The, um, plant-guy likes working alone because he is two people. Yeah. And we have agents and stuff in the villages, I guess, yeah."

Well, that was totally not confusing. An official partner who likes plants and was two people? And why did Deidara say he _was _a plant? Seriously, even if someone was a big fan of plants (which she couldn't imagine, not in the Akatsuki, but hey maybe she could garden with him, ha, ha) who would actually mistake him for one? Was Deidara that ditzy? No way.

A slow, icy hand trailed up her back. It sounded so immensely powerful – why hadn't it moved earlier? Were they waiting for something? And –

She couldn't get away from that question. It stung her, again and again, like a bee stinging a person covered in honey, repeatedly.

No, bees died after one sting. That thought was a hornet, or a wasp, because it was the same thing, burrowing into the delicate nerves of her brain. She wanted to squash it (Shino would never have forgiven her for thinking that); she wanted Shino here to help coax it away; she wanted bug-spray so that she could liberally coat her brain in it.

_Why had she been chosen? _

She couldn't help noticing that Deidara hadn't properly answered her question previously. Hinata had been too excited at the thought of flying on a piece of animated mud.

And by excited, I mean _completely freaked out. _

Deidara continued talking, hands spread wide for emphasis. She could see the tongues lolling out, pink and shiny and she wondered if he could control them. After all, weren't they muscles too?

"A-ah, Deidara-kun, can you c-control those tongues?"

Hinata wanted to slap herself. She didn't want to know that! She wanted to know why on earth she had been picked and not if this blond could control a few appendages of his. Deidara grinned at her.

"Not really, un. They more or less like to do their own thing, whatever that is, un."

Okay, so it wasn't all that creepy that he made his mouths sound like thinking beings. She hoped. Because if it was, her mind was irrevocably screwed over, because _she _didn't find it creepy at all.

Actually, to be completely honest? She wasn't all that bothered. Not about the questions, not about her situation, not about much in general. Maybe it was just him. He had this carefree aura about him that made her forget her worries. It was just the slightest bit addictive for a person who'd been riddled with worries after she passed her second birthday.

Hinata leaned back slowly and realized that she could practically lie down on his monstrous bird. It was large and hollow-eyed, an obvious stark white in the pastel sky, but at least it was large enough for her to sleep on – not that she took up a lot of space.

_And don't be a burden to your teammates, if you can help it._

Her father's words crawled into her mind. She'd never tried to be obtrusive, she'd tried to be helpful and quiet at all times. He left her alone like that.

_No!_

She would _not_ let this experience be marred by her stupid past. Letting the monotonous beat of the bird's wings fill her head, Hinata closed her eyes. Enjoying the soft smearing of the wind on her flushed cheeks, and the sweet touch of the warm sunlight, she promptly disappeared beneath a heavy blanket of foggy sleep. The sun continued rising, and she imagined that it was smiling at her.

_Daybreak. _

_Akatsuki. _

xXxXx

Slowly, she pulled herself away from the numbing darkness and became a little more aware of her surroundings. Shinobi rule number one: Awareness of situations (well, it came after _Don't die_, of course).

Her back felt slightly sore, resting against something hard and something warm, very warm, was shining down on her face and –

Was she flying?

The memories of the crazy past few hours flooded into her brain and she sighed. It couldn't have happened. She would wake up to Neji-niisan's call of "Hinata-sama!" and dress in a formal kimono for breakfast and hate herself… Ugh. She didn't want to face the day. So she curled into herself and snuggled deeper into the soft, velvety darkness that was like a gigantic blanket covering her from the evils of the world.

"Are you awake yet, Hinata-chan? We're going to get there soon, yeah," a voice informed her. She knew that voice, she knew it…

All of a sudden, she was very eager to wake up.

Hinata sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Her kimono (yes, she was still wearing that kimono she had planned to commit suicide in) was a little rumpled, and like the dutiful heiress she was (used to be), she fretted that it would have wrinkles left in.

In a sad attempt to stop the wrinkles, she ran her hands over it.

Not much help, but she had tried.

"Hai, Deidara-kun! When are we g-getting there?" she asked, maybe a little too excitedly, because he stuck his tongues (in the plural) out at her and teased her with a "Tell you later, yeah".

She crossed her legs under her, because hugging her knees was hard in this kind of clothing, and wondered what the Akatsuki would look like. Scary, evil…? Or might they be like a large, extended family of mass-murderers? Either way, she couldn't wait. As long Deidara was with her.

"Alright, Hinata-chan! I'm going to let you off now, yeah!" Deidara said cheerily, right before his bird flipped in a circle and she more or less fell off the bird. Apparently, his idea of 'telling her later' was to throw her off. How nice of him.

"Deidara-kun!" she called, her hands reaching up while she fell at a dizzying speed.

"Go Hinata-chan!" he cheered. Alright, so that wasn't exactly what she had in mind, but encouragement was encouragement. Maybe he just wanted her to prove herself first.

Well, then she would.

She took a deep breath and sent a bright pulse of chakra to her palms. Ah, thank the heavens for being a Hyuuga. It meant she had exceptional chakra control, and she didn't take that for granted. With a carefully executed somersault, she grabbed a tree branch and flipped to stand on it, balancing with chakra-filled feet.

Thank Kami for trees. Without them, she'd be a splotch on the ground.

Hinata surveyed the forest she was in. Which country were they in? She had no idea where the Akatsuki base was located. Wracking her mind, trying to figure out using the textbook methods from the Academy where she was, she didn't see the weakening of the branch as her chakra took its toll on it.

For the second time in five minutes, she fell, the branch snapping in half cleanly with a sickening crack. You know, she would swear branches loathed her. She fell while trying to commit suicide (so okay, that was the point of committing suicide) and now? Sure, she didn't exactly pick the strongest branch on the tree, but when she was free-falling she didn't have a lot of choice.

At least she was closer to the ground this time, and Deidara was hovering by close enough to catch her – partially.

With a crack almost like the branch, she landed, missing his open arms completely. At first she felt no pain, but then she shifted into a more comfortable position and her back, arms and legs started throbbing simultaneously.

Worst, little flickers of pain were stabbing their way up her shin, originating from her broken ankle.

"A-ah," she stammered, eyes filling with tears and pain. Her hand went to her abused ankle automatically and she attempted healing it. A blue glow surrounded her injury and she sighed, relieved, after the pain faded. It probably wasn't fully healed, and she made a mental note to pay more attention when learning medical jutsus next time.

"T-thanks for the w-warning, Deidara-kun," she sniped, and it was just _sad_ how even when she broke her ankle she couldn't sound angry at the person who caused her to break it.

She stopped thinking about it when Deidara hugged her, patting her head comfortingly (even if the tongue had decided to chew on her hair). "Sorry, yeah!" Hinata smiled at him. It was nice to know someone cared.

"Well – "

"Ouch!" she exclaimed, more out of shock than anything else.

It was a very bad idea for him to remove his hand while his mouth was chewing on a part of her. Testifying to the fact that he couldn't control them, it had apparently decided to hold on to her hair. He turned bewildered eyes to her, pleading silently "I had no idea this would happen, yeah".

He just looked so funny and, dare I say it, cute. Hinata cracked up laughing, but the movement just dragged a few more strands of hair from her head.

"Your hair tastes nice, yeah," he observed, seeming to be complimenting her.

"Um, t-thanks?"

"As I was trying to say," he shot a glare at his betraying hands, "we're almost there and you should just, uh, mentally prepare yourself for one of Leader-sama's briefings, yeah."

That didn't sound very good, Hinata decided. But she took his advice, even though she wasn't sure how to.

So that was how they finally got to the entrance of the Akatsuki base: with one of Deidara's hands more or less glued to her head and a broken ankle on Hinata's part.

What a great start.

_To be continued. _

**A/N: Yep, so that's chapter four! Hope you guys liked it, I tried to make it longer. And thanks again to all my reviewers (and the people who favourite this) for not screaming at my slow updates! **


	5. Spring Follows Winter

**A/N: ****Hi everyone! Chapter five is finally up! I know it's a little late (: Sorry! Please don't kill me –cowers- Anyway I hope you guys like it! **

**Adelaide 'Adell' Peirce: Hope you like the rest! **

**Disclaimer: I own an approximation of NOTHING. But I totally would own Deidara if I got the chance (I haven't). **

**xXxXx**

Chapter Five – Spring Follows Winter

"Who's the bitch, Deidara?"

"Hn."

"Aw, isn't she just the cutest thing ever?"

"Tobi thinks she's adorable!"

That last sentence was punctuated with a ferocious hug (she never even knew hugs could be this destructive) from a masked man. Hinata questioned his taste in masks even as she felt her breath being squeezed out of her lungs. Honestly, a bright orange swirly mask wasn't the best idea to stay inconspicuous. A mop of bushy hair stuck out from the back of his mask.

But she only realized how _tall_ he was and how _far_ she was from the ground when he lifted her up and spun her around in a twirl. Damn, he could make a living as a merry-go-round! Pity he only had two hands.

How could he be so happy? He must have killed a lot of people to get into Akatsuki, and it wasn't like killing people made you happy.

Before she could think too much about it, another member popped up beside Deidara. He was obviously pissed at being ignored and demanded, "Deidara! I asked who the bitch is!"

"Leader-sama asked for her, yeah!" He pointed out before turning a one-eyed glare upon the unfortunate soul. Deidara didn't really like people calling Hinata a bitch, because that was the last thing she was.

However, the abovementioned unfortunate soul didn't seem to care. He flipped Deidara the bird and turned to stare at Hinata.

The vulgar man had streaked-back silvery hair, skin pale enough to rival hers, fuchsia eyes that lusted for blood despite the innocent colour – and a wide-exposed chest. It was the river scene all over again, except somehow she thought Deidara's chest looked nicer.

_Wait, what? _

Okay, so being in the Akatsuki was messing with her mind. She'd bother about the lack of sanity later.

The man hefted his weapon of choice – a menacing looking three-bladed _scythe_, of all the freaking things to choose from – and sneered at her. "Fucking asked for by Leader-sama? She don't look like much, you sure you got the right bitch, Deidara?"

Deidara face-palmed himself. "Just shut up, Hidan."

Hidan didn't even bother answering this time. Probably gave Deidara up as a lost cause. Instead, he chucked his scythe, which was connected to him with a wiry cable, in Hinata's general direction. Her life flashed past her eyes, and making a surprised sound, she caught the flat side of the first blade with both her palms.

_How the heck did I do that?_

For a second, she stood stock still, absolutely freaked out and completely clueless of how she had managed that. It occurred to Deidara that she looked like a frightened bunny. He wanted to coo.

As for Hinata, she felt like going 'huh?' It was a move that maybe Rock Lee would have made, not her. Then Hidan jerked the scythe back and she was flung through the air (oh, what wouldn't she give to weigh ten tons right now), but not before she twisted her palms and sent the scythe spinning to the right, where Hidan snapped it back to his side. She didn't exactly fancy having the weird weapon sticking in her chest when she crash-landed onto the Akatsuki member.

Slamming into the man seconds after she ejected the scythe, she slid downwards and landed in a pathetic puddle by his feet.

She had hoped that the man would thank her for indirectly saving his life.

Nope, try again tomorrow please.

"No way in hell," Hidan laughed. "Is that the best the bitch can do?"

Suddenly, Hinata was just tired of it all. She was tired of having people look down on her; damn it, this person who's known her for all of two minutes was judging her as well! What did that say about her?

Nothing she really wanted to hear.

So in a hopeless bid to cover her ears (metaphorically – she couldn't waste her palms and taijutsu in that way), she started pumping chakra into Hidan, working from his legs up, since she was, you know, lying on the ground and all.

The pattern of her soft strikes was seemingly random, but any Byakugan user could tell you she was using the Gentle Fist on him. It didn't seem like much. Well, not until she passed eighteen palms. That was when most people started feeling the muscle tear and strain from sudden lack of chakra.

Her anger only served to fuel her attacks, and when she reached his stomach, he looked down in amazement, apparently thinking she was feeling him up or something inane like that.

But when she bypassed thirty-two palms and increased her speed, almost finishing, he faltered in his ramrod-straight position. And when she sent him a final Jyuuken strike right next to his heart, he gave a goldfish-esque gasp and slid to his knees.

A small, awkward silence reigned.

All of a sudden, her victory didn't seem so great. Especially not when everyone was flat-out staring at her tiny form. Hadn't anyone ever heard of manners?

With a quiet 'eep', she ducked behind Deidara.

"That was amazing!" Tobi exclaimed, rushing forward for another hug. If she didn't know any better, she would say he had got in purely based on his hugs. Kami knew he could create a whole series of jutsus based on them.

_Killing Hug Jutsu; Hug of Mass Destruction Jutsu; Spine-breaking Hug Jutsu… _

But they'd all be about the same anyway.

"You know, Hinata-chan, I wouldn't have minded if you had done that last one on his heart, yeah. Just so you know, he can't die, yeah."

"Huh?" she said confusedly, although inside she was screaming. Firstly, _why hadn't she just Jyuuken-ed him in the heart_? Next, _he couldn't die? What sort of twisted logic was that_?

"Excuse me, Deidara, before you let anything else slip before she's an official member, would you and the Hyuuga step this way." A shadow (or that's what it seemed like) spoke up from the corner and unattached itself from the wall and actually walked down the hallway. It turned the corner into an office.

Like her father, the shadow didn't ask questions. He gave orders, and he expected the members to follow them.

Welcome to the Akatsuki, folks: Where immortals with a tendency to swear attack people randomly, where masked men delivered death by hugs and where shadows liked to stroll down hallways.

Hinata and Deidara obediently trotted off after him, with Hinata ignoring the choking feeling in her throat. How bad could talking with a shadow be?

xXxXx

When the shadow was the leader of the organization, apparently it could indeed be that bad.

He didn't ask for them to sit. He just moved and sat on a chair (throne?) at the far end of the room and started talking.

"I want a mission debrief, Deidara," he said. Yes, said – there was no inflection, no tone, he was almost like Sasuke. Deidara nodded and launched into a description of how he had found her.

"Let me get this clear. You were attempting to commit suicide, Hyuuga-san. For what reasons?"

"I-I… my f-father h-he… w-well, um…" When she was nervous her stutter tended to act up badly. So did the finger-poking. She looked at her feet, suddenly realizing what a pretty colour her sandals were. They were so pretty that, in fact, she desperately _needed _to look at them, and it was a total coincidence that she was avoiding the piercing stare of the shadow, never mind that she couldn't see his eyes.

Total coincidence.

"Don't stutter. It's unbecoming. Very well, we'll skip that question first. Are you prepared to join the Akatsuki, Hyuuga-san?"

"I-I… Hai, Leader-sama," she whispered, fingers attacking each other even more furiously.

"Speak up," he ordered, although she was sure he did that just to torture her.

"Hai, Leader-sama," she repeated, albeit much louder. For her, anyway. Still, he seemed satisfied.

"Deidara, leave. I need to go through the formalities," the shadow instructed.

With one last glance at Hinata, Deidara slipped out of the door, silently thanking Kami that he didn't have to face any wrath from Leader-sama for being indirectly involved in Hidan's incapacitation.

Then again, when he heard all the swearing going on in the front room, he almost wished he were back in the dim room (torture cell? A place strewn with the corpses of past members you couldn't even see because of the bad lighting? Yeah, you see how being in the Akatsuki screws up your brain).

xXxXx

"I still haven't gotten an answer to that question, Hyuuga-san."

She could faintly make out eyes with concentric circles spiraling in the entire eye. They narrowed now, but he sounded almost curious. Hinata wondered if it was some sort of Dojutsu other than the Sharingan and her Byakugan.

"My father, he put the…" she stopped there, wondering if she should go on. If Deidara was right, and they wanted her Byakugan, they mightn't be too happy if she died in battle and they lost her eyes as well.

"He put the…? I dislike repeating myself, Hyuuga-san."

"He marked me with the Caged Bird Seal, Leader-sama," she said in a rush, hoping to get whatever was going to happen over with. She couldn't bring herself to say 'cursed'. That was like saying her cousin was doomed. And she couldn't think that – one of her dreams, besides having Naruto's affection, was to find a release to the cursed seals for the Branch family.

The shadow contemplated that for a moment and then said a little flippantly, "That will not be a problem. I will have Kakuzu remove it."

Evidently, he had anticipated her reaction and was thus fully prepared when she stared at him blankly for a few seconds and then pitched forward in a dead faint. However, he was _not _prepared for her when she refused to wake up from her stupor.

"Hyuuga," he stated, a little annoyed that this kunoichi dared to faint before his presence.

No response.

He scowled at her prone form and nudged her side with his toe delicately (yes, he was substantial). When nothing happened, he gave a hopeless sigh and made a few rapid hand signs.

There was a little flicker in the air, and Deidara materialized before him. "Yes, Leader-sama?"

The blond caught sight of Hinata slumped on the ground and immediately rushed forward. "What did you do, yeah?" he demanded, shaking her none-too-gently. Leader-sama shook his head in despair and threw a few objects at him, before whisking away in a flurry of cloak and shadow.

And no, the few objects were not a deadly shower of kunai, no matter how much the Leader wanted to at that moment.

Deidara rifled through the items, before hoisting Hinata over his back and stalking out, not feeling very gracious towards any human being at the moment. He almost wanted Hidan to up and attack him so that he could blow him to bits.

xXxXx

She _needed_ to get used to waking up in strange places – an animated piece of mud shaped into a bird, Deidara's bed, for examples.

His bed smelt nice. It smelt like him, she decided, like clay and sky. The blanket was black and red, Akatsuki colours, and, to her surprise, he had a something that was probably meant for hugging. Given that it was squashed beyond human recognition, it was a little hard to tell. He also had something warm tucked into the left side.

However, to her utter embarrassment it was Deidara tucked into the left side.

With another shriek that might've damaged her vocal chords and his ear drums _permanently_, she scrabbled to the furthest end of the bed, and predictably, started blushing. She couldn't move much, though, as his hands were wound around her and the mouths were yet again chewing on her (but thankfully her clothes this time).

"Whoa," he groaned, as he turned to her and blinked dizzily. "Don't mind me saying, but you've got one hell of a scream, yeah." He unwound his arms from around her and sat up, rubbing his eyes with the backs of his hands.

"Yay, you're awake, yeah! I was beginning to think Leader-sama killed you, yeah!" Deidara rejoiced happily, before shoving a few items into her hands.

"There, that's your welcome scroll, nail polish, cloak, hat and shoes, yeah! Read the scroll first and then I'll explain the things," he said, pointing to them in turn, before turning to a wooden table beside the bed and fiddling with something on it.

"N-nail polish?" she murmured, but decided to go with the flow. Hinata popped the wax seal on the scroll and unrolled it, the creaky parchment feeling fragile beneath her fingers.

_Name: Hyuuga Hinata_

_Age: 15_

_Kekkei Genkai: Byakugan _

_Status: On trial _

_You have not been confirmed an official member as of yet. You will need to go through several stages of advanced training, and when it has been determined that you are worthy of a position in the Akatsuki, you will be given your ring, finger placing and an assignment to a Jinchuuriki. _

_Stage one: Evaluation of current skill level_

_Stage two: If needed, advanced training from each member; if not, proceed to assignment of Jinchuuriki_

_Stage three: Evaluation of skill level after stage two_

_Stage four: Capture of assigned Jinchuuriki_

_You are still to follow the rules of the Akatsuki while on trial. _

_Rule one: No intentional maiming of any member unless with good reason._

_Rule two: No defying of the Leader's orders. _

_Rule three: No questioning of the Leader's orders. _

_Punishment will be severe if any are broken. _

_Deidara is to be your guide while you are on trial. Your first evaluation will be in two days._

_Have a happy trial! _

Well, that was reassuring. Not.

She turned to her 'guide' and asked curiously "No intentional maiming? Unless with good reason? What is a good reason?"

"Like if he breaks a rule, or whatever, yeah. But you could always stretch the point and say he pissed you off. Normally Leader-sama doesn't take the effort to punish us, yeah." Deidara swiveled around to face her and grin.

"So the cloak is supposed to be worn at all times, the hat while traveling, and nail polish is to be repainted if chipped etcetera, yeah. And before you ask," he added hastily, "we are not pansies who like to gather around a campfire (or whatever it is that pansies do) and paint their nails, yeah. Leader-sama's jutsu for summoning us darkens our fingernails and it doesn't look very nice, and I guess he just likes purple or something. Yeah."

"O-oh… um, should I prepare or something for the evaluation?" She looked completely freaked out by the idea of that, and her fingers _had _to have dents in them with all the poking that was going on.

"Nope! That's what the advanced training is for, yeah!"

"Alright, Deidara-kun," she smiled and rolled the scroll back up.

"Can I practice on you?"

xXxXx

Two days later, Hinata had grown used to the confines of the cloak. While it was annoying, she had to admit it was much baggier than her old outfit, and that pleased her. Besides, it was nice wearing something besides that stupid kimono which she had had the _awesome_ presence of mind to wear while killing herself.

Deidara had found her some mesh, which was like a shinobi must-have, and a top and bottom which had lain in the storage for quite a while. Although they smelt a little musty, she preferred them to the kimono, even if she did miss her jacket and trousers.

She was just thankful she didn't have to fight in the kimono. But, ever caring of her needs, Deidara had somehow washed the kimono and it was more or less perfectly preserved.

That reminded her…She was still wondering how she could be so special. After getting over the shock of being in the Akatsuki, she had gotten a new shock: Deidara was somehow too sweet to her to understand.

How had he shown up exactly as she was killing herself?

Why was he so nice to her?

Yes, he was sweet, but sweet as in he inquired after her, bothered about whether she got a good night's sleep or not and not the "hey-I'm-your-friend-yeah" sweet.

He seemed a little careful around her; after that first, unreserved day with its tangy sweetness of summer, he had sort-of retreated into himself, and didn't seem to want to regard her with the same brotherly warmth, and being around him was almost like standing in a field during autumn, where the leaves were falling around her.

She could just _see_ their relationship, however short it had been, dying out, turning to winter.

That couldn't happen. He was the only one she got along well with, since the only other members she knew were Leader-sama, Tobi, Hidan and Hidan's partner, Kakuzu.

Tobi scared her, even though he was so happy over everything (he seemed a little too happy), Hidan freaked her out (especially after she caught him stumbling in yesterday slung over Kakuzu, with half his organs hanging out and the other half missing, and he had been_ cursing_ loudly still [and his _heart _was part of the missing half]), Kakuzu was just so silent (not to mention all those weird threads he had patched Hidan up with) and Leader-sama?

Psh, don't even get me started. She wanted to pee her pants around him, that's how scared she was of him. And secretly, she thought he enjoyed the palpable fear she felt near him.

Which brought her back to her point: She couldn't lose touch with Deidara.

"Hinata-chan, get ready, it's time for your evaluation, un!"

Speak of the devil…

And he shall appear.

The blond devil bounced into the room, and bounced right back to behind the threshold, watching her with that careful, single revealed eye of his, in the way she had been lamenting about. He was keeping her at arm's length cautiously, and she had no idea why.

Oh, did I mention, she had finally gotten her own room?

And she was totally psyched about it.

Not.

Especially not when she saw the relief in Deidara's eyes when Leader-sama had informed her. She really did sleep better next to him, and knew she had to do something drastic soon, because the bags around her eyes were getting too obvious.

Hinata missed the smell of his blankets; she missed the untidy clutter of clay animals around the room; she missed the simple decoration in his room which didn't look lived in at all (excepting the clay animals, as mentioned above and the messed up bed). She even missed the squashy hugging thing (which was actually a centipede, Kami she'd been _so_ freaked out when she realized). Yeah, she was that desperate.

Her room was far too ornate and decorated. She would swear that Leader-sama had a girlfriend who had him whipped, because it was definitely the work of a female.

Heck, she just missed Deidara. Screw excuses.

"Ah, I'm coming, Deidara-kun!" she said hastily and leapt after him before he disappeared again.

It had started to feel like her life at the Akatsuki was just this big, one-sided race to catch up to Deidara.

xXxXxXx

Did she mention Leader-sama's girlfriend, who had him whipped?

Because it was so totally the gospel truth.

Well, not the girlfriend part. But she definitely had him whipped. I mean, the strange female had glared at him when he had started forward, likely to continue his torture of Hinata, and he _had stopped. _

She was really pretty, Hinata decided. The as-of-yet only female Akatsuki member had a mature paper-pale face of an angel, lidded eyes of an undetermined colour and a very vague smile. If she didn't know better, Hinata would've thought her eyes were white.

The only colour in the figure was her hair, a vibrant blue that was a lighter version of Hinata's. A decorative paper flower was stuck in her hair, before a messy bun. This had to be the Flower-chan. Flower-chan waved the Leader away (Flower-chan waved the Leader away! Hinata _needed _to learn how to do that!) and he faded until not even a wisp of the clinging shadow was left. Then she turned to Hinata.

With an almost-gulp, Hinata realized that she didn't really want to know how scary Flower-chan could be. Not everyone bossed Leader-sama around.

But Flower-chan just gave her another mechanical smile and spoke in a voice that was mellow and slightly kind.

"Good afternoon, Hinata-san. I suppose you know that it is time for your assessment," she murmured almost daintily. Translation: You'd better know, because I'm not being responsible for your imminent death. That would be too much paperwork.

"H-hai," Hinata answered. A thrill of fear and perhaps excitement shot through her veins like a drug. Maybe it was the heat of the day (no thanks to the Akatsuki for holding their assessment outdoors), but she was getting lightheaded. Then again, she could always just be scaredy-cat afraid…

Flower-chan shuffled her cloak. Didn't they get all _hot _under that heavy black fabric? Hinata was literally sweating her skin off, but unfairly, the regal-looking female only looked slightly flushed around her neck.

They ran her through basic jutsus and a few higher-level ones until Hinata's chakra store was almost depleted. She had about a third of it left, and it's not as if there was a lot to begin with. That wasn't really helping her situation. You know, the Kami-I'm-so-tired-I-could-die-asleep-but-crud-I'm-not-done-yet one?

Swaying dizzily, blinking her eyes almost spastically, biting at her chapped lips until they were puffy and red – wow, she sure must be making a great impression on the Akatsuki.

And three things that _definitely_ weren't helping: the stupid sun hanging in the sky, almost smug, as it beat down on her with its stifling rays; the interested crowd gathered about them, mostly comprised of members she hadn't ever seen; worst, Deidara looking at her blankly like he wasn't sure who she was.

Still, she was too tired to care about them. When this was over and done with, she was never waking up. Ever.

"Very well, Hinata-san. I just need you to perform what you deem to be the best move you possess – taijutsu, ninjutsu or genjutsu, it makes no difference. If you require a person to demonstrate on," she continued, obviously having taken into account the fact that she was a Hyuuga (a failure of one, but one nonetheless), "you may pick from the audience around us."

Well, so she wasn't the only one who had noticed them.

Hinata nodded, feeling a little (very) faint. This was the time for her new jutsu. She hadn't yet actually tried it with actual weapons, since the kunai Shino and Kiba threw at her were blunted and caused large plum-coloured bruises at worst. That was bad, but not as bad as doing the same thing she did to the immortal Hidan when she first arrived. Reusing techniques wasn't the best idea.

"I will need someone to help me w-with me d-demonstration p-please, a-ah…" she asked in a long, stutter-filled awkward sentence. Stopping, she remembered that she didn't know how to address Flower-chan. It wasn't like she could actually call her that.

Trailing into an even more awkward pause, she held her breath and hoped that she wouldn't be blasted off the face of the earth for her stumble.

Taking no notice of her slip-up, Flower-chan simply tilted her head towards the crowd.

Evidently, she needed to ask the person herself.

Flower-chan was obviously out, for obvious reasons. Deidara would be nice, but she didn't know the effect her jutsu would have on bombs. Only a Kaiten would stop _those_. Maybe Hidan? It would be nice to show that she had no hard feelings for his random attack, but she didn't want him to use his scythe. That wouldn't work; her jutsu was for multiple, slightly smaller projectiles. And she wouldn't put it past him to wound her while she was concentrating.

The other people standing around had frightening appearances. And when she said 'frightening', she meant scream-for-your-mommy-and-pee-your-pants kind of frightening.

The largest one was clothed in a huge, plus-sized cloak, and appeared to be emerging from within a Venus Flytrap. She would have picked him because the presence of a plant was therapeutic and reminded her of her garden back in Konoha (_don't go there, don't think about homesickness_), but his hands were inside the flytrap, and she didn't think he could throw anything.

The other one had frilled gills on the sides of his head (honestly, gills? How original), bulbous yellow shark-eyes and _oh my freaking Kami were those fangs? _God, she wasn't going to even think about him. He was the worst candidate, and dang if those fangs didn't remind her of Kiba (_stop it, stop it_). She was never, ever going to choose him.

Okay, so the last guy was Kakuzu, and she knew him slightly (if you counted seeing him bring back a guy who was by all rights half-dead but not), but she did mention about that he freaked her out, right? Because he did. His face was almost too high up for her to see, but she knew he was creepy enough to force a reaction from even her stoic cousin Neji (_damn it, stop thinking about them_).

For a second, Hinata wished that she looked absolutely horrifying as well (like most of the Akatsuki members), because even if she was more or less worthless her appearance would put off a lot of attackers.

Maybe.

But then she thought of the painful processes that might entail and… Kami, what a hope. For a girl who fainted when she so much as _smelt_ blood, she shouldn't even think about changing her appearance. Ouch.

Back to the subject.

Okay, so the shark-nin with the fangs it was.

"Would you mind being my volunteer?" she asked, trying not to stutter. She figured that when she spoke low enough to barely be heard, her subconscious let her not stutter. In fact, it worked best when she wasn't heard at all (like when she used to sing in the shower and didn't stutter, not once. Well, Neji-nii heard her once and all of _that _went down the plughole).

Anyway, somehow or other the shark-on-land heard her and pulled up his lip in an approximation of a smile. One fang glinted at her.

He broke out of the ring, all seven feet of blue skin muscled up like a professional bodybuilder. Hinata really didn't want to think about how hard he could throw kunai. What if it was hard enough to break past her defense? That would look bad. And that would hurt like hell.

"No problem," he grinned. It was strange how his mouthful of double-rowed canines let him speak like a normal human, but it was true.

"W-would you mind throwing kunai a-at me?" she asked again, hoping he got the drift. The stutter was back with a vengeance, and she didn't want to have to talk more than was necessary. "Nope," he assured her, giving her a look that made her want to Doton out of his sight.

She looked over at Deidara. He was looking at the tall shark-man. The tall shark-man looked at her.

Something hung over Deidara's face. Hinata hoped against hope that it was worry for her. She almost wanted to get badly injured so that he could be like he was, but the odds of that were slim if she wanted to get into the Akatsuki (and oh yes, she did, if only to stay around him).

A muffled steely scrape made her start and remember where she was. Shark-man had out two hands, fisted around four kunai each. He was giving her a warning, because no doubt he had noticed her dreamy look. How nice of him.

"Byakugan!" she whispered, making the last seal to her bloodline limit – the snake hand sign with her right index finger raised. Veins popped up around her eyes, and she felt the rush of chakra channeled towards her white eyes. When she had first activated her Byakugan (at an intolerably late age), it made her head spin and get dizzy. Although it was almost a decade after that, she still felt she just staggered off a wild ride and was about to throw up.

No thanks to her stupid Caged Bird Seal. Coupled with the fact that she hadn't used it for a long time, the seal just had to rebel against the influx of chakra to her head.

Surprisingly, the shark had a huge store of chakra, almost on par with Naruto's, which was weird because his chakra was a uniform colour and it wasn't two different kinds of chakra, battling it out for control. She felt him focus his eyes on her, or more specifically, her eyes.

A strange emotion was radiating from him.

Amusement. He was _bemused _by her little actions.

The uncharacteristic anger (which she'd been feeling a lot more lately, so maybe not uncharacteristic) welled up again, and she cried with more emotion than was strictly necessary "Guardian Eight Trigrams: Sixty-four Palms!"

She moved her arms in a circle, brought them together, and circled them again. With increasing speed, she rotated her arms and let the chakra spill from her fingertips, creating a spherical grid of defense that none (as of yet) had been able to get through. Honestly, it was very like a Kaiten. Hinata had to spin and everything, but it needed more effort because in this jutsu, she had to move her hands fast enough to get everything.

It was like watching in negative, a rush of white-gray-black tones, as she saw her volunteer cock his arms back and fling the kunai at her. While they cut through the air to get at her, he dug in his holsters for more.

Now or never.

Chakra exploded from her palms, turning the strike of the kunai away and sending them dropping to the ground. She deflected one aimed for her heart (this guy sure didn't play around).

Her arms were two separate entities, shields moving practically of their own will as they protected her from the weapons. He tried every spot; her eyes, her head, her neck, her heart, her abdomen, her _pancreas_, and he obviously wasn't above some fancy work. Leaping above her, a shower of kunai fell on her, and when he landed he went underground to try and stab her in the feet.

An explosion of chakra radiated from the soles of her feet as she leaped, trying to avoid his jabbing kunai. Obviously, this situation called for some improvisation.

Midair, Hinata back-flipped, avoiding the swarm of shuriken (aha, he had finally run out of kunai) below her, before landing on a very surprised shark-nin who had the idiocy to stand under her. "Two palms!" she cried, switching jutsu.

"Four palms!"

"Eight palms!"

"Sixteen palms!"

"Thirty-two palms!"

"Sixty-four palms!"

While she was busy damming up his chakra network, she saw a faint glimmer of many little pinprick-sized lights around the network. Dismissing it, she wondered if her Byakugan, pathetic and faulty to begin with, was finally cracking.

One word: _Shit_.

And yeah, okay, Hyuuga Hinata didn't swear.

Hyuuga Hinata didn't have to stand-off with Akatsuki members often either with faulty Byakugan. By all rights she deserved to be able to swear (even if only mentally; her polite shell didn't let her say those words out loud yet).

He stumbled backwards, a hand to his chest where her final strike had landed. Flower-chan hadn't seen this move yet, so she looked faintly satisfied, and started taking notes on a piece of paper which had appeared from thin air. But of course, Hidan just had to snort "Huh, I've seen better."

"Very well, Hyuuga-san, you may go back to your room to recover. The results will be along tomorrow," Flower-chan said coolly, as if she was talking about hospital results, and left in a swish of black-red cloak.

Slowly, everyone dispersed while Hinata stood bent over, trying to catch her breath. Stupid chakra exhaustion.

"That was great, yeah!" Deidara exclaimed behind her, and she jumped, startled.

"O-oh, arigato Deidara-kun," she smiled. Something seemed to relax in his eyes as he caught her smile, and he started making small talk (whoa. She never thought she'd see an Akatsuki make small talk) while they went to her room. Hinata was so happy at this sudden display of affection that she asked "Can I sleep with you tonight?" without thinking it through.

Silence fell over them.

Hinata immediately blushed to the roots of her hair and stammered "I m-meant that I wanted t-to sleep in t-t-the same r-room, not t-that…!"

Deidara laughed at her outright, although his blush didn't recede fully, and agreed.

The next morning her eye bags were fainter, and Deidara asked Leader-sama for a bigger room (Hinata would bet he didn't want to grant his request, if not for Flower-chan). _Spring follows winter, after all_, she thought while cuddling up to his warmth.

_To be continued. _

**A/N: Okay, okay, I know the ending sucks, is totally clichéd, is too rushed, **_**sucks**_**, but I was in a really hurry to get this up. Merry Christmas everyone! Have a happy new year! P.S. You guys all know the drill. I would love reviews as a Christmas present (: **


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